14" wheels for disc conversion okay?

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Inspector71

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I'm still digging out of a financial hole but like to plan ahead. I would like to convert my 68 Barracuda from 9" drums (it had a slant 6) to disc brakes. I looked at several options but most seem to say for 15" wheels or larger. I put a 15x7 wheel from my 68 Charger next to the little Barracuda and it is bigger than what I want to use. It seems like SSBC (Summit Racing) is the only one that carries a disc brake conversion for 14" wheels (larger bolt pattern). Is there anything wrong with sticking to 14"s? I plan to mostly cruise in the car and if all shakes out, it'll have a 360 under the hood.
 
they should, 74+ a-bodies had 14s with bbp discs.
 
I want to go with chrome Rallaye wheels, larger bolt pattern, but 14". My concern is so many disc converson seem to be for 15" and larger only. SSBC has the smaller ones. I am going to try and drop the K frame (no drive train in car) and the Schumacher mounts, change all the suspension parts, change torsion bars, and swap to disc brakes in the drivewy garage. I have no idea what I'm doing or getting into either. Should be fun with a lot of yelling.
Rockerdude, I'd like to have every car you sold. Great cars all of them.
 
Pull a disc brake set up out of a '73+ V8 car and you can run 14s. I have 14in Rallyes with discs on my '73 and will go to 14in Slots.
 
I just did the drum to frt disc brake conversion using the ssbc kit. I kept the small bolt patten as I have brand new14" cragar ss classic wheels.... I got the kit from Anything Auto....$900 shipped to my door... works great!!!
 
The factory brakes (10.87" rotor) will work with 14s, but tire selection is getting very limited with 14s and the overall diameter can be the same. My GTS has 215-70-14s and they are the same height (or a little taller) than the 215-60-15s on my son's Dart (he did have 235-60-15s on the rear).
 
I liked the SSBC drum to brake conversion kit in Summit racing (stage 1) but couldn't find exactly the same one on SSBC's website. The one I did find said it would not work on A bodies that came with 9" drums...which mine did. My major concern for the 15" wheel is the width.
 
That is good news especially since I don't know what I'm doing. One of the kits on the SSBC website said it will not work with cars that came with 9" drums, which I have, and that I needed the larger 10.5" spindle. Was that true in your case?
 
Why not just locate and use factory parts? I recently sold a really nice set of disc brakes with like new USA rotors and upper control arms off a 55K mile 75 Dart. They are out there and you won't have a bunch of speciality parts that you can't replace seperately if the car was in a wreck.
 
Inspector71 said:
That is good news especially since I don't know what I'm doing. One of the kits on the SSBC website said it will not work with cars that came with 9" drums, which I have, and that I needed the larger 10.5" spindle. Was that true in your case?
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my dart had the 10 factory drum brakes....ask some of the experts on here, they should know...sorry i couldn't be more help
 
find a new 10" rear drum, hard. front disc are still available, but perhaps the Previa rotor is less expensive or whatever for the scarebird conversion.....Course you have to punt the 5 on 4 pattern with the scarebird unless you drill them Toyos....I thought Scarebird took the 9 drum spindles?
 
pishta said:
find a new 10" rear drum, hard. front disc are still available, but perhaps the Previa rotor is less expensive or whatever for the scarebird conversion.....Course you have to punt the 5 on 4 pattern with the scarebird unless you drill them Toyos....I thought Scarebird took the 9 drum spindles?
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I hear ya on the 10 inch drum. the scarebird conversion can use either the 9" or 10" spindle for the same adapter if it's 9" they go on the way you see in my post. if 10" they flip and go the other way. I'll find out when I do the wife's car, she has 10" drums on hers. the rotors were cheap! the rotors,calipers,pads,master cylinder and hoses cost about $100.00 the darn caddy hoses were 17.00 a piece. and I just drilled the Hubs to the 4.5 on 5 pattern of the rotors so I will only have to redrill once to get it to change to the larger pattern even if I change rotors out. plus I get a wider range of tires 14's and up!

another plus is that I can walk into any auto parts store and get parts Easy AND cheap! that made it all worthwhile in my opinion. no waiting a day or 2 to get the mopar parts delivered at a greater price ,if they still carry it!
 
66Dvert: Great looking car and those wheels also look good on the car I have a 66 Convertible Valilant I'll get to some day. I wish I had your skills.
 
Inspector71 said:
66Dvert: Great looking car and those wheels also look good on the car I have a 66 Convertible Valilant I'll get to some day. I wish I had your skills.
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I like the rally wheels also. they are discontinued tires on there (darnit I liked then big old wide ones) but I think if I drive it as much as I want to I'll have to get some new tires just to be safe I think 245/14 are the biggest I can find right now in a new tire but I keep looking!

Ispector71 thanks, but I didn't have those skills when I started doing this stuff. I learned as I went along. I figured if I took my time and read/researched anything and everything I wanted to do (plus begged the wife for new tools I'd need) that I could do just about anything anyone else could do. not cheaper mind you and sometime not even better (learning curve get ya and mistakes too!) but once you do it you just get better and YOU know how it's done. so that no one can BS ya. and if you want to farm out the next one(either way to much work or you hate doing it .) you still know how it's done and they will have a harder time screwing ya over.

I love doing this (can't figure out why I still work so darn hard for an old car) but I do and it relaxes me.(hmm wife's standing behind me shaking her head saying I'm nuts) I know that it'll get done and I know that I'll have done at least 95% of the work and no it won't be perfect, even now I see things I should have done differently and will on the next one,BUT when I look at the car I feel GOOD! that makes it all worthwhile. it's been a long road to get where it's at right now (lot of time/effort but middling amount of money)and now the engine work is eating my spare money up fast!
need to hot tank the engine and deck it 60 thou. do some head work and might have to go 30 over to get back into compression range. I was only getting 110 on 5 and 90 on 1 do I knew it was time to freshen it up.

dang I need some sun to show off the pearl in the paint!View attachment DSCF3646.jpg
 
you guys have aleady taught me a lot. A couple of years ago, having no idea what I'm doing, I wouldn't have dreamed of trying this stuff. I still don't know what I'm doing but figured I can learn as I go. If I had to pay someone to do this, there is no way I could ever affrod to build my car so your work and pictures provide me with inspiration to do it. I should be on this sometime in June.
 
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